Disney Chooses OpenAI's Codex and Drops GitHub Copilot

Disney Chooses OpenAI's Codex Over GitHub Copilot

In a significant strategic move, Disney has decided to abandon GitHub Copilot, Microsoft's AI coding tool, in favor of Codex from OpenAI. This transition was confirmed by eight Disney employees, who expressed their disinterest in GitHub Copilot, highlighting the rising popularity of Claude and Cursor within the company. These tools have become key elements as Disney intensifies its adoption of artificial intelligence in its technical processes.

Disney officially announced that it no longer needs a co-pilot for its AI coding journey. This decision, which took effect in August in the United States, was revealed in an internal message that Business Insider was able to review. In addition to GitHub Copilot, the company has also decided to discontinue several other AI coding tools. However, it is important to note that these changes do not affect Disney's international operations, as clarified by a technical executive at the company.

GitHub Copilot Faces Increased Competition

Disney's decision to part ways with GitHub Copilot represents an additional challenge for Microsoft's tool, which is already competing with solutions like ChatGPT and Claude. GitHub Copilot, part of Microsoft's suite of AI tools, seems to be losing ground in terms of adoption compared to its competitors. The company itself has acknowledged that GitHub Copilot is "lagging behind" these tools in terms of adoption.

For OpenAI, and particularly for Sam Altman, this situation presents an opportunity. Disney is preparing to integrate Codex, although no specific date for its deployment has been communicated. Meanwhile, Disney continues to allow access to Claude Enterprise from Anthropic and Cursor, while ending the use of two AI tools from Amazon: Kiro and Q. Furthermore, Claude will no longer be accessible via the Amazon Web Services Bedrock platform.

Challenges Faced by GitHub Copilot

Eight technical staff members at Disney shared with Business Insider that they rarely, if ever, used GitHub Copilot. A product manager criticized the tool for generating code that he described as "unnecessarily complex," often requiring additional corrections.

An experienced software engineer mentioned that his access to GitHub Copilot had "expired due to lack of use." He explained that since he gained access to Cursor and Kiro, he had no reason to use GitHub Copilot anymore.

Last month, GitHub Copilot caused frustrations by changing its pricing policy, opting to charge customers based on their usage of AI tokens. This approach, which has become common in the industry, was justified by the company as a necessity to make the business model "sustainable." Despite this, an executive at Microsoft claimed in June that this strategy had allowed GitHub to experience "the best month ever."

Microsoft is committed to renovating GitHub and reorganizing its Copilot teams so that its tools can effectively compete with those from OpenAI and Anthropic.

The Growing Appeal of Claude and Cursor at Disney

Within Disney, Claude and Cursor have gained popularity among technical employees. Some heavy users of these AI tools utilize them tens of thousands of times a day. A senior software engineer estimated that his use of AI tools is "probably around 80% Claude when coding."

Streaming executives at Disney have set up a dashboard to track AI adoption, encouraging technical employees to use it to enhance their efficiency. A senior AI executive emphasized that "the number one priority is to increase velocity," meaning the speed of production.